The “New” Science Fiction

A Popular Science article titled Is Science Fiction About to Go Blind? talks about the science part of modern SF. It mentions how writers like Charles Stross and Cory Doctorow have embraced the singularity – SF author Vernor Vinge’s concept of rapid advances in technology whose technological peak will usher in the “posthuman” era. There are several mentions of Stross’ upcoming book Accelerando, a collection of his Manfred and Amber Macx stories set in a posthumanist future (One or two of which I’ve read and enjoyed).

1 Comment on The “New” Science Fiction

Have you noticed the mania for plastic surgery and “body-modification” lately? It’s gone so far that the U.S.Army offers subsidized plastic surgery for its recruits.

That is certainly a “post-human” trend: we are starting to take for granted that we can re-shape our own bodies and not have a “finished” form. This trend isn’t going to end: aging Baby Boomers will be increasingly desperate for ways to rejuvenate their aging, sagging bodies.

So from this we might predict that coming breakthroughs in altering the human form will start in the fields of cosmetics and rejuvenation treatment. At some point, the Boomers will DEMAND that their brains are uploaded, so that they can escape death.

Do you realize what this means? We’ll never get rid of them! The posthuman state will be a litany of 1960s nostalgia… ;-P